The Northern Minnesota Mission of the Mennonite BrethrenCentral District Conference was begun in 1926 by John H. Wiens, who under the Northern Gospel Mission Union, took over a mission at Mildred, Minnesota. From there the mission established preaching centers connected with Sunday schools and daily vacation Bible schools. A number of young people attended Bible schools and went out as missionaries to various mission fields at home and abroad. For 30 years this mission continued with the same workers still on the field.

Another mission center was opened among the Chippewa Indians at Ponemah on the Red Lakes Indian Reservation. This work had a hard beginning because these Indians lived in isolation from white people and resisted their religion. Art Unrau and his wife together with Sarah H. Balzer and Marie Peters started Bible classes with the Indian boys and girls at the school. In 1956 Sam Fast and his wife were in charge of this station. Another mission station was opened at Ericksburg near International Falls, in charge of Tina Ediger and a co-worker.

The conference together with the various Mennonite churches in and around Mountain Lake, Minnesota, and various mission friends supported this mission work.